keyboard shortcuts not available on MacBook Air

Good day -


My daughter has an issue where no keyboard shortcuts are available on her MacBook Air after updating to the latest version of Big Sur - 11.2.3


See the attached screen captures where she has taken a picture of dropdown menus in Finder. Options for commands that can be selected via trackpad input are black, but all keyboard shortcuts are greyed out.


She has verified that no keyboard shortcuts are functional in any programs that she runs - mostly Pages. This all started after the update, and she discovered she could not keyboard shortcuts to cut and paste inside Pages. Further investigation indicates that she is unable to use any keyboard shortcuts at all on the device.


Any help appreciated -



MacBook

Posted on Mar 29, 2021 4:07 PM

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Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 29, 2021 4:21 PM

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Communities. First, try running First Aid on your hard drive with the built in Disk Utility tool, as this can correct simple issues like you're experiencing.


Disk Utility for Mac: Repair a disk using Disk Utility


Next, use safe mode to start up your Mac as it does the following things:


  • Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
  • Loads only required kernel extensions
  • Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
  • Disables user-installed fonts
  • Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
  • (If you don't understand what this means, just know that Safe Mode can be used when your Mac is having problems)


Log in to your user account and test the issue while in safe mode and then restart normally and test the issue again.


If the problem persists, please reply and we can do some additional troubleshooting.


3 replies
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Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Mar 29, 2021 4:21 PM in response to stmccann

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Communities. First, try running First Aid on your hard drive with the built in Disk Utility tool, as this can correct simple issues like you're experiencing.


Disk Utility for Mac: Repair a disk using Disk Utility


Next, use safe mode to start up your Mac as it does the following things:


  • Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
  • Loads only required kernel extensions
  • Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
  • Disables user-installed fonts
  • Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
  • (If you don't understand what this means, just know that Safe Mode can be used when your Mac is having problems)


Log in to your user account and test the issue while in safe mode and then restart normally and test the issue again.


If the problem persists, please reply and we can do some additional troubleshooting.


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Mar 30, 2021 5:56 PM in response to sea116

Good day sea116 - talked to my daughter today. Issue was still there in Safe Mode, and after booting back to a normal setup. She hopes to get the laptop to the local Apple Genius Bar in the next week or so - but until then, what troubleshooting steps would you suggest?


Thanks again -

Sean

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keyboard shortcuts not available on MacBook Air

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